Panthr Radio Podcast E02 Maserati - E

Eric Abercrombie aka Maserati - E is a revolutionary acoustic guitarist and poetic lyricist from Oakland, CA. Incarcerated at the age of 17, he spent a third of his life in the prison system, the last 2 years at San Quentin State Prison. While inside, he started making music as a way to cope and heal, using an acoustic guitar and his voice as his instruments. The result of this effort spawned an entirely new kind of music, an acoustic rap of sorts, that mainly focused on his own struggles and experiences growing up in the prison system. It caught the attention of David Jassy, a previously incarcerated award winning producer, who asked him to be a part of the groundbreaking San Quentin Mixtapes. Unique in many ways, every song on the mixtape was recorded, produced and performed by inmates at San Quentin. Also of note is that Jassy didn’t allow for any profanity or gratuitous violence in the lyrics, which proved to be an emotionally cathartic experience for the musicians. The idea was to help change people’s perceptions of the incarcerated and to help fix unfair biases. E’s song “Break The Mold” fit perfectly on the 17 track compilation. With support from J Cole, Common, Meek Mill and Talib Kweli, the mixtapes have been making their rounds and doing what they were meant to do: Inspire, uplift, and heal.